LinkedIn 'hack': how to choose a secure password

The alleged theft of 6.5 million LinkedIn users' passwords by hackers has left
them scrambling to change their login details. A recent study found that
some people continue to choose laughably simple passwords, however.

Hackers can guess simple passwords by trial and errorPhoto: ALAMY

4:07PM BST 06 Jun 2012

'Password' has topped the list of the 25 worst web passwords people commonly use to login into sites, leaving them more vulnerable.

The second most common password is ‘123456’, another easy code for hackers to guess when trying to access people’s email or Facebook accounts.

Other passwords to make the list, generated by SplashData, an American password management data application, include: ‘abc123’, ‘iloveyou’ and ‘monkey’. The full list can be seen below.

Last month Facebook admitted that hackers are breaking into hundreds of thousands of Facebook accounts every day.

Out of more than a billion logins to the website every 24 hours, 600,000 are impostors attempting to access users’ messages, photos and other personal information Facebook said.

The figure is the first time that the social network has revealed how it is bombarded by hackers on a daily basis.

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, a computer security organisation, said it was becoming easier to hack into web users’ accounts, as thirty per cent of people online use the same passwords across all websites.

Top tips for choosing an internet password:

- Vary different types of characters in your passwords; include numbers, letters and special characters when possible.

- Choose passwords of eight characters or more. Separate short words with spaces or underscores.

- Don’t use the same password and username combination for multiple websites. Use an online password manager to keep track of your different accounts.